Unbeknown to anyone else, Nathan does not die. Rather, he is sent to an alternate dimension where he is the Watcher to a certain vampire slayer in Sunnydale. An alchemy experiment gone wrong sends Shilo to the Hellmouth, and Giles’ old life rushes back in

Shilo
sat at the table a little towards the back of the Magic Box, brows
creased as she wrote down what she could recall of the ingredients to
her experiment. Her memory seemed to be failing her lately, but she
didn't know if it was because of the explosion or because of the
amount of stress she'd undergone in this place in just one day. She
sighed and put her pen down, rubbing her forehead. It was probably a
combination of both.

Sunnydale
-- or the Hellmouth, as her father's look-alike called it --
carried its own brand of culture shock, too. For a place that
attracted a lot of baddies, it was awfully beautiful in the daytime.
She'd spent the morning perched on Giles' front steps, taking in
the sunlight. Back at home, everything was so dreary with the amount
of pollution that clouded the air and sky. The clean air would
probably make the atmosphere back home a bitch to transition into
once she got back, especially since her compromised immune system was
just starting to kick in . . .

.
. . If she ever did get back home.

"Are
you alright, Shilo?" Giles' voice said behind her.

She
dropped her hand from its place on her forehead. "I'm fine,"
she murmured.

"Tell
me when you get hungry. I can have someone bring something in for
you."

She
nodded, feeling a sense of calm by the older man's hand on her
shoulder. He wasn't her father, but he looked like him, and he did
carry a sort of paternal aura. He was probably much nicer than her
father, too. She sighed and returned to her piece of paper. Shilo was
trying so hard not to grow an attachment to Giles, but it was
difficult. It was completely skewing her mourning process for her
father.

"I
have to be careful about what I eat," Shilo piped up. "My father,
he . . . " Did she really want to tell a complete stranger that her
father had poisoned her for the better part of her life? Not that she
would call it better at all. She pursed her lips, trying to choose
her words carefully. "I was very ill until not too long ago. I
don't know what foods I'm sensitive to. But the food over here
can't be as bad as back home, I guess. There are so many
preservatives in the food now."

Giles
nodded, pushing his glasses further up his nose. "We can go food
shopping later if you'd like."

A
swell of affection rose within her before she could squash it down.
Shilo swallowed, hard. She couldn't believe she was getting worked
up over something as simple and domestic as going food shopping with
her father -- no, this man who looked like her father. "Th-Thank
you," she said, cursing her breathlessness.

He
smiled kindly. "Shilo, may I ask a question about your father?"

She
swallowed again, her mouth suddenly dry. "I-I can try my best to
answer."

"His
name . . . What was it?"

"His
name was Nathan," Shilo replied, gripping the edge of the table.
"Nathan Wallace. He was a . . . a doctor." She sucked in a breath
when she heard the tinkling of the bell and watched the front door
open. A young woman with chestnut brown hair swept into a messy bun
stepped inside, smiling shyly.

"Good
morning," she greeted.

"Tara,"
Giles said with a smile of his own. "Thank you for coming on such
short notice. I was wondering if you could help."

"With
what?" she asked, taking a seat across from Shilo at the big table,
her keen eyes landing on the young girl.

"This
is Shilo, um--"

"Wallace,"
Shilo said.

"Yes,
Shilo Wallace. She . . . She dropped in from another dimension last
night and she'd be extremely grateful if we helped her find her way
home."

"I,
uh, was doing an alchemy experiment back at home and it blew up,"
Shilo said sheepishly. "When I woke up, I was in a crypt. I'm not
sure if you know him, but Spike found me. He took me here, to the
shop." She glanced down at her abused slip of paper. "I've been
trying to write down the ingredients I used, but for some reason I
just can't recall all the calculations."

"I'll
try to help you as best I can," Tara said gently, giving her a warm
smile. "We all will. I think we have some pretty resourceful people
around here."

Giles
smiled down at the young girl, giving her shoulder another reassuring
squeeze. "More than you know." He glanced at Tara. "We can call
Willow when she's recalled enough of the chemical equations. I
think we could use all the help we can get."

Tara
smiled at Shilo when she tensed, her eyes strained as she glanced
down at the paper. "There's no pressure, Shilo. Remember what you
can. In fact, I could probably help you a little bit."

"H-How?"
Shilo asked, her conversation with Giles coming to mind about how
she'd landed in a not so ordinary place.

"I'm
Wiccan," Tara explained. "I can use a harmless spell to induce
memory enhancement. It's kind of like . . . Using ginko biloba, but
in an advanced form and an even more advanced process."

She
nodded. "I can alter the incantation so that it triggers what it's
supposed to trigger if you don't want anything else touched."

Shilo
took a deep breath before nodding. "Okay."

"Don't
worry," Tara said as she stood from her seat. "I'll just
prepare the ingredients."

Shilo
watched, her curiosity peaked as Tara went about the shop, collecting
the needed items. There were small dusty vials and labeled zip lock
bags filled with various dried plants. Tara retrieved a mortar and
pestle from the back of the room, emptying the needed ingredients
into the bowl and grinding them. Its aroma was strong, but not
unpleasant.

"Come
sit on the floor with me," Tara said after drawing a pentagram on
the ground with chalk. She lined it with salt. She said a brief
incantation at each point of the pentagram before stepping inside the
circle. She motioned for Shilo to do the same.

Shilo
carefully stepped over the line of chalk and salt, sitting in front
of Tara with the bowl in between them. Tara lit two candles -- one
red and one white -- making soft, sweeping gestures with her hands as
she spoke her incantation softly.

"So
mote it be," Tara finished, her hands coming to rest in her lap.

Shilo
frowned, waiting for something grand to happen. "I don't--" And
then suddenly images of what she'd written down on paper back at
home came rushing through her mind, and she began to stand.

"Not
yet," Tara said, quickly grabbing her hand. "I have to close the
circle."

"But--"

"Don't
worry," she said gently. "It will still be there."

Shilo
nodded, sitting down again, her knee jiggling as she gradually lost
her patience. It seemed like forever for Tara to close the circle,
but once the witch was through, she practically leapt out of it and
back to her paper, writing down everything she could remember.

"I'll
call Willow," Giles said, going in the back to use the phone.

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